In the two maps in your article (above), there is a change of coloration in a series of states, between map 1 and map 2 that is not identified in the legend.

Would you please clarify why, e.g., Missouri, changes from dark-green to brown? And it's not limited to the dark-green colored state.

Regards,

Chuck(le)
[Figures don't lie, but liars figure.]

Five out of the six are democrats. Two out of those five are Afro_Americans.

And as for the lone Republican, Ryberg, he is the kind of person that would fart in church, and then point toward his mother. Anything for a vote.

"For crying out loud, it took me less than five minutes to find out what the New Testament actually says on the subject by typing new testament usury on the Google search line and proceeding from there. That's the trouble with sites like this one. People will spout opinion all night long rather that spend a moment doing research."

....for one thing, I'm not perfect and I don't recall that passage you mention. [Note: There's a LOT in there, you may recall.]

For another, I don't seem to recall you're piling into this discussion since I joined it. So why do you rebuke me for not reading your comments until NOW?

Additionally, my Mens' Bible Study Group is going through Matthew with a fine-toothed comb. Right now we're just coming out of the beatitudes. We'll get to your reference in due time. Then I'll examine it in more detail.

For the nounce....

....that is an interesting look at that passage. I'd not thought of it as directly spoken. Rather, I'd looked on it as reference to our personal 'talents', i.e., skills, gifts, etc. Not as money.

Definitely on the list of items to be addressed early some Friday morning with my group of compatriots.

Thanks,

Chuck(le)
[Wise men learn from others mishaps. Most people learn from their own. Fools NEVER learn.]

I don't recall the NT mentioning usury either. And that's my point. Based on that, should christians abide with the OT or consider the point null?

For crying out loud, it took me less than five minutes to find out what the New Testament actually says on the subject by typing new testament usury on the Google search line and proceeding from there. That's the trouble with sites like this one. People will spout opinion all night long rather that spend a moment doing research.

Lumping secular together with liberal is intellectually lazy at best, probably dishonest and self-serving in many cases, and just plain incorrect.

Um, sorry, but basically what's happening here is that the master is berating a slothful servant telling him that he would have been better off giving it to those evil people so he'd at least earn interest on the money he gave him.

I mean, really. I'm pretty darn sure this isn't an exhortation to the faithful that they can start charging interest and gouging.

Wow, what a reading of that passage. I can only sit back in stunned awe at that interpretation.

Wow.

How often has the modern religious right movement taken positions that are in conflict with Wall Street? It is certainly quite the political feat that the party of Herod has locked down the votes of the followers of Jesus. But I guess that is nothing new.

Link please. I'm not saying you're wrong, but ...

Link? Am I to take that to mean you don't have a bible? Well then, see:

http://etext.virginia.edu/kjv.browse.html

for example. Click on Matthew and scan chapter 25, verses from about 20 through 30. The similar reference in Luke 19 is pretty much just a re-telling of the same thing.

I'll have to research Aquinas before I can comment on that, but I seem to remember that Christians needed Jews for bankers during the Middle Ages/Renaissance because of their (Christian) aversion to usury.

Link please. I'm not saying you're wrong, but Saint Thomas Aquinas was debating this as recently as several hundred years ago and usury was illegal in most of the Western world until the 14th century. Just curious.

Robert

"I'm not sure I understand. I don't think the New Testament specifies a fair interest rate either, though it does mention money changers and tax collectors. Care to elaborate?" -- Robert Prather

I don't recall the NT mentioning usury either. And that's my point. Based on that, should christians abide with the OT or consider the point null?

As for Tax Collectors....well....they are mentioned in the NT. Indeed, one is converted. Some guy named Matthew, as I recall.

As for the exchange 'bankers', I seem to recall something about a whip of knotted cords. But I suspect that if I were to carry such into a place where I could exchange dollars for euros, I'd be thrown out on my ear, before I could lay my 'lucre' down....on their backs.

But that's beside the point. The point is that there is a possible 'disconnect' between the OT and NT regarding usury.

I'm open to suggestion on how to resolve that.

Regards,

Chuck(le)
[A clash of doctrines is not a disaster. It's an opportunity.]

""Why indeed do (today's) Christians feel no need to speak out against usury when the Bible does so forcefully?" -- LaurenceB

Still and all....

....that IS a good question.

And an even better question is why don't the non-christians speak out against it? For instance....the two-thirds majority of Democrats cited in this 'peculiar' study.*

* I suggest 'non-christian' as they hold a 2-to-1 majority in those districts where this egregious situation exists.

But then again, if you're not REALLY a 'christian', why are you even bothering?

As some Wag put it, about 2000 years ago....

And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?

Please remember....

....I didn't start this discussion. But since it has been initiated, I'll be happy to [please pardon my Yiddish] 'kibitz'.

I'm not sure I understand. I don't think the New Testament specifies a fair interest rate either, though it does mention money changers and tax collectors. Care to elaborate?

Robert

"Why indeed do (today's) Christians feel no need to speak out against usury when the Bible does so forcefully?" -- LaurenceB

I know the passage in Exodus. However, where is it in the New part of that Old Book?

I ask because christians, the REAL ones, tend to look for correlation of information between those two parts of the Old Book; for validation.

After all, the Old part said to stone adulterers. In the New part, even Christ does not call for that.

I don't recall, in the years since I became a real christian and reading that Old Book on a more frequent basis, seeing anything about usury in the New part of that Old Book.

Maybe there's a particular significance in the absence of information. Or maybe I missed it.

Could you point it out to me? Either way?

Regards,

Chuck(le)
[Know your enemy and know yourself, and you shall never be defeated. -- Sun Tzu, The Art of War]